Johanne Sophie Herre

Johanne Sophie Herre (* July 8, 1706 in Dessau ; † June 5, 1796 there ) was the morganatic wife of Wilhelm Gustav , Hereditary Prince of Dessau (1699–1737), and later Countess of Anhalt .

origin

On her mother's side, Johanne Sophie Herre comes from a long-established and wealthy family of merchants and pharmacists. The mother, Katharina Dorothea Starke († 1767), was the daughter of the respected Rector of the Dessau Latin School . The father, Christian Herre (1646–1720), formerly mayor of Jeßnitz - he had acquired his fortune as a merchant and heir from a previous marriage - continued his successful business after her mother's marriage in 1691.

Of the three older brothers, two were officers in Prussian service, the youngest was provost in Wörlitz . Herre had a younger sister.

Marriage and marriage

How and where Herre and the Hereditary Prince met is not known. However, the two were distantly related. The mother of the Hereditary Prince was a Dessau pharmacist's daughter, Anna Luise Föhse , later Countess of Anhalt and, as the wife of Prince Leopold I, Princess. Although Dessau was the royal residence, only a few thousand people lived there at the beginning of the 18th century. In this small town, their parents' homes were only 300 meters apart.

Wilhelm Gustav and Herre married on March 14, 1726. The secret night wedding took place in Dessau. Only the bridal couple were present, Pastor Hoffmeister from Raguhn , who performed the wedding, and Herre's grandmother, Anna Elisabeth Starke. The young couple kept the wedding secret. Nevertheless, Johanne Sophie Herre moved into an apartment in Hornburg , near the place of employment of her husband, who served as an officer in the Prussian army.

In the summer of 1727, shortly after the birth of their first child Wilhelm, the small family moved to Gut Kleckewitz, where Herre spent the next two decades in seclusion. The Hereditary Prince, to whom Gut Kleckewitz had been given to use by the Prince, visited them regularly, but continued to live in Dessau or its garrison. Johanne Sophie Herre and her children had no official contact with the Dessau court or the princely family during these years.

The constantly growing family made their living from the private fortune of Wilhelm Gustav and the income from Gut Kleckewitz as well as his position as a Prussian officer. All nine children from this marriage were identified in the baptismal registers as legitimate children of the Hereditary Prince and his wife. Although Wilhelm Gustav had already committed himself to his wife and children in a will in 1734 and appointed the latter as heir, this will was also kept secret.

Death of the Hereditary Prince and first years of widowhood

In December 1737 Wilhelm Gustav became infected with the smallpox virus . The heavily pregnant man visited him in secret at his sick bed. In the face of this fatal illness, he revealed marriage and paternity to his brother Moritz . Two days later, on December 16, 1737, the Dessau Hereditary Prince died. His widow and children spent the day at Gut Kleckewitz.

Wilhelm Gustav was buried on January 16, 1738 as the unmarried Hereditary Prince of Anhalt-Dessau; neither the gentlemen nor the children attended the ceremony.

When the will of 1734 was opened, Leopold I of Anhalt-Dessau undertook to take care of the family. All children were excluded from the Anhalt-Dessau succession. Under the condition that he would continue to live inconspicuously at Gut Kleckewitz, he fixed maintenance for all children up to their 16th birthday, an annual pension for his widowed daughter-in-law and dowries for the three granddaughters. His grandsons were obliged to enter the military. Prince Moritz was appointed the children's guardian; Johanne Sophie's own affairs were to be handled by her brother Christian Herre, Prussian quartermaster.

The Dessau court tolerated that the widow signed her documents as "Johanne Sophie of the Hereditary Prince Wilhelm Gustav von Anhalt widow" and carried the princely-Anhalt coat of arms. The title of the sons as “Lords of Anhalt” and the daughters as “Dames” also testifies to a partial recognition of their social standing.

The time as an imperial countess

Imperial coat of arms from 1749

Johanne Sophie lived in seclusion at Gut Kleckewitz until the old Dessauer's death on April 9, 1747. Her three older sons joined the Prussian army, the younger children were raised together by her and her guardian, Prince Moritz.

This situation changed when the new Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, Leopold II. Maximilian , forced the ennoblement of his deceased brother's family to the imperial counts from 1748 . After the financial issues had been clarified - Prince Leopold II and his siblings shared the cost of 22,000 Reichstaler - the formal application was made to the Imperial Councilor in Vienna . On September 19, 1749, Emperor Franz I gave his consent and Johanne Sophie Herre and her nine children became the Imperial Counts of Anhalt. Associated with this was the right to one's own coat of arms, but also the exclusion from the Anhalt succession.

Herres Palais in Dessauer Kavalierstr. 41 (left)

In that year, Prince Leopold II gave his sister-in-law a state-of-the-art city palace along with tax and duty exemption. Johanne Sophie moved to Dessau. She lived in close contact with her relatives, took part in court life and, not least, was greatly appreciated by Prince Franz .

She could not meet the resulting financial needs from her own resources - based on the decrees of the old Dessauer from January 1738 - and was dependent on donations from the siblings of her deceased husband. She received it from gifts and wills, e.g. B. from the estate of Prince Eugene 18,000 thalers and an annual pension of 1,200 thalers. So she was able to buy parts of the neighboring properties and the adjacent house. In 1787 she lived there with five servants and four maids.

death

The Countess Johanne Sophie von Anhalt enjoyed good health all her life. She survived seven of her nine children before falling asleep in her home on June 5, 1796.

Immediately after her death, Prince Franz had a representative tomb erected for the Countess. He chose the middle of the south side of the New Burial Ground for this . The Doric style vault , built from Pirnaic sandstone and plastered brick, housed a small hall with the coffin. An inscription plaque was placed above the lintel. The text - written by Prince Franz himself, testifies to his great respect for the deceased - reads:

"Johanne sophie herre /

count zv Anhalt / born the VIII. ivli MDCCVII / married with gvstav heir princes zv Anhalt-dessav, the XIV. March MDCCXXVI / died the V. ivnu MDCCLXXXXV. / like the silver wave that gently wiggles its way through meadows / gently refreshes the banks, your life dragged on. "

Gravestone in the historical cemetery Dessau

In 1833, on the occasion of the expansion of the cemetery, the burial chamber was opened, broken through and redesigned as a passage. The remains of Johanne Sophie Herre were with the permission of their granddaughter, Louise Kasimire Countess Waldersee reburied in a vault below the current portal.

Others

The Hereditary Prince and his wife were united by a common great-grandmother, Eleonora Blandina Schulze (1621–1696), who was married successively to the pharmacists Dominicus Starke (Herre's great-grandfather) and Christoph Föhse (Wilhelm Gustav's great-grandfather).

Gut Kleckewitz belonged to Wilhelm Gustav's cousin until 1727. The old man from Dessauer bought it from her and in the same year left it to his son not as property, but for use with all income.

Herre's heirs sold the stately property in downtown Dessau to Prof. Ludwig Heinrich Ferdinand Olivier , the father of the painter brothers Heinrich , Ferdinand and Friedrich Olivier. The house was badly damaged in the bombing raids in March 1945 and was later demolished.

progeny

• Wilhelm , Count of Anhalt (March 15, 1727– November 3, 1760 in the Battle of Torgau), Prussian lieutenant colonel
• Leopold Ludwig , Count of Anhalt (February 28, 1729– April 28, 1795), Prussian general, bearer of the Order of the Black Eagle
• Gustav, Count von Anhalt (May 26, 1730– November 22, 1757 in the Battle of Breslau), grenadier captain in the Prussian infantry regiment No. 47
• Johanna Sophie , Countess of Anhalt (July 9, 1731– July 15, 1786), abbess of the high-nobility fräuleinstiftes in Mosigkau Castle
• Friedrich , Count von Anhalt (May 21, 1732– June 2, 1794), Adjutant General of the Russian Tsarina Catherine II.
• Wilhelmine, Countess of Anhalt (February 12, 1734– June 4, 1781)
• Albrecht , Count of Anhalt (June 24, 1735– August 26, 1802), Prussian major general
• Heinrich, Count of Anhalt (September 4, 1736– September 14, 1758), Prussian captain
• Leopoldina Anna, Countess of Anhalt (January 26, 1738– September 23, 1808)

literature

• Franz Brückner : House book of the city of Dessau . 25 volumes and register volume. Stadtarchiv Dessau (ed.), Dessau 1975–2002.
• Paul Herre: The secret marriage of the Hereditary Prince Wilhelm Gustav of Anhalt-Dessau and the Imperial Counts of Anhalt . Verlag Friedrich Gast, Zerbst 1933. Reprint, Funk Verlag Hein, Dessau 2006, ISBN 3-939197-07-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Franz Brückner: Häuserbuch der Stadt Dessau , Volume 18, Stadtarchiv Dessau (ed.), Dessau undated, p. 1604.
2. ↑ Ludwig Würdig: A walk through the two Dessau cemeteries . Self-published, Dessau 1886. p. 36.
3. ^ Franz Brückner: Häuserbuch der Stadt Dessau , Volume 2. Stadtarchiv Dessau (Ed.), Dessau 1975. P. 124ff.